The present disclosure relates to motor units, such as linear actuators, and particularly, to determining the amount of usage of motors of motor units. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to motor unit contactless passive operation time counters.
Motor units are used in a wide variety of equipment including healthcare equipment. For example, patient lifts and patient beds oftentimes use linear actuators to move one portion of these devices relative to another portion. In many existing devices using linear actuators, there is no way to determine the overall time of operation of the motor unit. Thus, it is difficult to know when maintenance or replacement of these motor units should occur.
Systems have been proposed in which the existing internal electronics of the motor unit is tapped into to determine the time of usage of the motor unit. However, engaging with existing electronics in this manner possibly may affect existing certifications for some equipment, particularly healthcare equipment, and also presents challenges with regard to retrofitting of existing equipment. What is needed is an operation time counter for a motor unit that is passive and that can be easily added to existing systems without the need for re-certification of the existing system.